i was just watching the footage of nelson mandela being freed in 1990. it's a very moving piece of footage. so mandela is a symbol of that freedom for the entire country. history often seems like it happened to somebody else a long time ago and no longer has any relevance. >> seeing the pictures you're like wow, you realize that it actually was happening and may actually have been worse. a lot of the things that are happening in these images are actually stilli still happening today in syria and egypt and darfur. >> when we see images of the american south with the two different water fountains, the colored water fountain and the whites only water fountain. and we think about that as some odd historical curiosity. that only went out of existence 50 or 60 years ago. apartheid is a much more recent story. >> my photo class came here really to broaden our perspective on photography and politics and just humanity in general. because that will influence how we seat world. >> when you're seeing the terrified faces of all these people that are going through the